Storage
Sandisk Cruzer Enterprise: the first secure flash drive to support OS X
When we pointed out that the AES encryption functionality on board Iomega's eGo Encrypt hard drive didn't function under OS X, turns out we might have been unfairly singling it out - as Sandisk's Cruzer Enterprise has just claimed the title of the world's first encryptable flash drive to fully function on Macintosh operating systems. Read More
Iomega Encrypt and BlackBelt hard drives
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In this day and age, it's not just the tinfoil hat crowd who are likely to find themselves a little paranoid about their precious data. Iomega has announced two new entries to their eGo portable range, the ultra-rugged eGo BlackBelt and the government-grade encryption packing eGo Encrypt. Read More
NewerTech Voyager quad interface SATA drive dock
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NewerTech's Voyager is a hot swappable docking station for 2.5" and 3.5" SATA hard drives of up to 2TB capacity. With support for Mac and PC, with interfaces for FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0 and eSATA on board, you'll be hard pressed to find a computer that won't talk to it. Read More
Toshiba to launch 16GB microSDHC
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The ever-increasing rise in memory capacities continues with Toshiba launching an industry largest 16GB microSDHC memory card onto the market. They have also further extended their range by adding ultra fast read write 8GB and 16GB SDHC cards. Read More
Kanguru e-Flash drive with eSATA and USB connectivity
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The new Kanguru e-Flash drive features both USB and eSATA connectivity, which gives it the dual advantages of widespread connectivity through the USB2.0 standard as well as allowing it to achieve speeds never before obtainable with standard USB drives thanks to an eSATA connection. Using eSATA's 3Gbit/sec throughput, the drive potentially offers five times the throughput of USB 2.0’s 480Mbit/sec and the eSATA connection is powered so no additional power source is required. Read More
Half-Terabyte 2.5-inch HDD from Toshiba
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Toshiba has announced a new series of energy efficient 2.5-inch hard disk drives targeted for integration into notebook PCs, sub-notebooks, small form factor and energy star PCs, game consoles, external storage devices and consumer electronics products. Read More
30 petabyte storage facility for climate and weather records
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Analysis of the Earth’s climate relies on and generates a huge amount of data. No one knows this better than the folks at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), who have announced the arrival of AMSTAR, a new digital storage library that will preserve and protect 30 petabytes of valuable scientific data for the next 15 to 20 years. The new system, designed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. and based on the Sun StorageTek SL8500 Modular Library, will give NCAR five times its current storage capacity, enabling it to generate increasingly sophisticated computer studies of Earth’s climate. Read More
Packaging innovation promises to reduce landfill
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Each year an estimated 20 billion cubic feet of styrofoam is used globally for the shipment of 250 million perishable packages. Once the packages have arrived safely, this quickly translates to mountains of landfill. Coldpack's eco-friendly alternative is an inflatable insulating liner that converts a corrugated box into a cooler with better insulation and cushioning properties than styrofoam, reducing supply chain costs as well landfill. Read More
Sun Unified Storage Systems offer simplified, cost-effective data management
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Sun Microsystems has introduced the first products in its Unified Storage System line-up with the promise of breakthrough diagnostics and troubleshooting capabilities, optimized performance, one-fourth the energy consumption, simple installation and configuration in under five minutes and up to 75% cost savings compared to competing storage systems. Read More
LaCie Internet Space adds web access to home network storage
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LaCie's latest a network hard disk also acts as a personal web portal so you can access and back-up data remotely - a very handy attribute in all sorts of situations including for example, backing-up holiday snaps while you're still on the road. Available in 500GB or 1TB models, Internet Space can be used to stream photos or videos to a television, acts as an iTunes music server and caters for streaming multimedia files to Xbox 360™ and Sony Playstation® 3. Read More
Kanguru eco drive promises low-power data storage
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Billed as the most energy efficient hard drive on the market, Kanguru Solutions' 1-terabyte Eco Drive automatically gauges hard drive usage and uses three different operation modes to reduce power consumption by up to 75 percent.
Iomega StorCenter ix2 home network storage solution
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Iomega appears to have hit the mark in terms of both usability and affordability with its StorCenter ix2 network storage solution. The "dictionary sized" unit offers home and small-business users Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and up to two terabytes of storage on two high-performance SATA-II drives, which can be configured a simple four-click set-up. It also includes print server capability, security camera support, Bluetooth file uploads and a built-in media server that allows it to be used as a home multimedia hub. Read More
Sandisk releases Sansa slotMusic Player
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SanDisk is looking to expand its market with the introduction of the Sansa slotMusic Player. The plug & play, portable music player was specially designed for use with the new slotMusic cards available today in the US. SanDisk are pushing slotMusic as a new format of high-fidelity, DRM-free MP3 music on a microSD card, which gives consumers the ability to listen to and quickly swap music between a mobile phone, personal computer, and any MP3 player with a microSD slot. Read More
Flatshare Fridge could save big arguments
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Anyone who’s ever lived in a share house knows the disappointment of finding their tasty leftovers devoured by a greedy roommate, only to have them deny all responsibility. This great idea dubbed the Flatshare Fridge is a concept designed to eliminate arguments by providing separate food storage spaces for each household member. Read More
Liebherr's ZKes 453 cigar storage unit
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Storing and maturing cigars successfully relies heavily on the regulation of air temperature and humidity, and the new ZKes 453 humidor from Liebherr achieves this using a stainless steel housing lined with Spanish cedar wood that incorporates sensitive electronic control system in conjunction with temperature and humidity sensors, all operated via an electronic SoftTouch panel.
USB-enabled smart transit card to trial in France
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Smart cards that combine RFID contactless transaction capability with USB connectivity will be trialed by French public transportation company SNCF according to a report from RFID Journal. As well as working with existing RFID transaction infrastructure, Neowave's Weneo smart cards enable users to purchase tickets from a PC at home using the USB connection... and it's also a handy 4GB portable data storage device. Read More
Intel introduces solid state drives for notebooks and desktops
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The writing is definitely on the wall for traditional hard drives with the continuing rise of Solid State Drives (SSDs) using flash memory. With no moving parts, SSDs run cooler and quieter and are a more reliable option than hard drives so now Intel have joined the party with the announcement of two new SSDs based on multi-level cell NAND flash technology for laptop and desktop computers. The 1.8-inch X18-M drive and the 2.5-inch X25-M promise several advantages including faster overall system response, boot and resume times. Read More
USB stick bottle opener
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The list of things you can do with your USB memory stick just keeps getting longer. The latest 2-in-one effort from TrekStor will ensure you don't get caught short at your next BBQ - the USB stick CO is a high-speed data storage device which doubles as a bottle opener. Read More
SanDisk SDHC cards reach record-setting 30MB/s transfer speed
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New cards in the SanDisk Extreme III SDHC line have set a transfer speed record of 30 megabytes per second – 50% faster than the company's 20MB/s cards. The SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Edition SDHCcards will hit shelves in September, for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of US$64.99 for the 4GB model, $109.99 for the 8GB model, and $179.99 for the 16GB model. Read More
Micron's next-Generation RealSSD Solid State Drives
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August 8, 2008 Solid State Drives (SSDs) have found a happy home in laptop computers in recent times due largely to their size, durability and low power consumption compared to traditional hard drives. Now, with SSD capacities increasing, Micron Technology believe SSDs can also find a new home in enterprise server systems where historically hard disk drives have reigned. Read More
World’s smallest portable 2.5-inch USB hard drive
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July 29, 2008 Tech companies just love being able to lay claim to that “world’s smallest” title, and hard drive manufacturers are no different with Freecom boasting the “world’s smallest and lightest” portable 2.5-inch USB 2.0 external hard drive with the Mobile Drive XXS. Read More
Kingston updates their DataTraveler line of flash drives
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July 25, 2008 Kingston has introduced the security- (and fashion-) conscious DataTraveler 101, alongside 16GB variants of their DataTraveler 100 and DataTraveler 400 flash drives. Read More
Samsung rolls out promised new HDDs
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June 23, 2008 Two previously announced Hard Disk Drives (HDD) from Samsung have entered mass production. The 500GB capacity Spinpoint M6 HDD for laptops and the Spinpoint F1 RAID Class (F1R) 3.5” SATA hard drive that features 1TB capacity were on show at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last January and are joined by the new Spinpoint MP2 - a 250GB 2.5” hard drive operating at a 7200rpm rotation speed. While the Spinpoint M6 and MP2 are built for the booming laptop market, the Spinpoint F1 is designed for enterprise storage and surveillance applications. Read More
Toshiba announces 160GB, 1.8-Inch, serial ATA interface HDD
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While the future for mobile hard drives looks certain to be Flash memory based SSDs, there is still some life in the traditional platter based drives for a while yet with Toshiba announcing a new line-up of 1.8-inch hard disk drives adopting a serial ATA interface. The new releases include the industry's first drive of this type with a capacity of 160 gigabytes. The new 160GB drive, MK1617GSG, and an 80GB drive, MK8017GSG, boost interface speeds to 1.5Gbps and offer rotation speeds of 5,400 rpm, faster than the current generation of Toshiba 1.8-inch HDDs. Read More
BlueLounge CableBox organizer
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The age of wireless electrical power could still be some way off, so until then there's still room for simple solutions that cover-up the unsightly entrails of home electrical devices. Bluelounge has added to its range of organizing solutions with the CableBox, a neat hide-away for power-strips and electrical cables. Read More
LaCie updates d2 Blu-ray drive
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May 29, 2008 LaCie has doubled burn speeds to 4x for its d2 Blu-ray Drive and has updated the aluminum alloy case and software suite. The multi-format drive records, rewrites and reads 25GB or 50GB BD-R (recordable) and BD-RE (rewritable), as well as DVD±RW DL and CD±RW and comes fully equipped with Roxio burning software, including Easy Media Creator for Windows, and Toast Titanium for Mac, and dual FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 interfaces. Read More
World's fastest 2.5-inch 256GB SSD from Samsung
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May 27, 2008 Following on from last year's 64GB solid state drives (SSD) with SATA II interface, Samsung has upped the ante by developing a 2.5-inch, 256 Gigabyte (GB) multi-level cell (MLC) based solid state drive using a SATA II interface, which it claims is the world’s fastest. With a sequential read speed of 200 megabytes per second (MB/s) and sequential write speed of 160MB/s, Samsung's MLC-based 2.5-inch 256GB SSD is about 2.4 times faster than a typical HDD. Samsung are also laying claim to title of the thinnest drive with the largest capacity to be offered with a SATA II interface - it measures only 9.5 millimeters (mm) thick, and has dimensions of 100.3x69.85 mm. Read More
Dell first to ship systems using new high performance Ultrastar Hard Drives
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May 26, 2008 Dell is the first computer supplier to ship server and storage systems using high performance 450GB SAS disk drives based on Hitachi's new Ultrastar 15K450. The 3.5-inch, 15,000 RPM drives deliver 450GB of storage and a 30 percent improvement generation-to-generation in sequential throughput. They also have 50 percent more available capacity than their 300GB predecessors, but similar low power characteristics. The drive features average seek times as low as 3.3 milliseconds and the fast rotational speeds reduce average latency time to 2 milliseconds. The drives are available with either 3Gb/s Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) or 4Gb/s Fibre Channel (FC) interfaces. Read More
SanDisk's new line of premium mobile phone memory cards
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May 23, 2008 Using mobile phones for multimedia activities has increased as phones have crammed more and more multimedia capabilities into their ever shrinking housings. SanDisk’s new Mobile Ultra microSD/microSDHC and Memory Stick Micro (M2) flash mobile memory cards, aim to meet the storage and speed requirements of digital photography, music downloads, videos, and GPS functionality that have become standard on such devices. Read More
New Travelstar 320GB notebook HDD from Hitachi
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May 9, 2008 Hitachi has begun shipment of its fourth-generation 7,200 RPM mobile hard drive, the Travelstar 7K320. The new drive delivers 60 percent higher capacity than its predecessor, while improving application performance by 12 percent and power consumption by 22 percent. The 320GB Travelstar 7K320 features a SATA 3Gb/s interface and fast media transfer rates to provide faster file copying and document retrieval, better graphics and improved game performance. A best-in-class operating shock protection of 400Gs minimizes the effects of rough handling and vibration and with power utilization on par with Hitachi’s 5,400 RPM mobile drives, users can enjoy more “unplugged” notebook computing time. Read More
IBM set to supercede Flash with superfast, high capacity, low cost Racetrack memory
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April 11, 2008 Nanotechnology was more science fiction than fact when Dr. Eric Drexler released his seminal 'Engines of Creation: the Coming Era of Nanotechnology' in 1986. 20 years later, this revolutionary discipline, which focuses on the manipulation of matter at an atomic or sub-atomic level, is starting to bear fruits in a vast array of bleeding-edge technologies. With nanotech innovations spurring the latest advances from solar energy capture that works in the dark, to long-range, high-power, quick charging batteries for electric cars, to fog-free glass and smart self-thermoregulating fabrics already maturing as viable technologies, the latest advances in nanowire data storage from IBM seem set to thrash both hard drives and flash memory at their own games. It'll be incredibly fast, virtually indestructible thanks to no moving parts, its capacity will be absolutely enormous, it'll use next to no power and produce next to no heat - and it will be 100 times cheaper per byte than flash memory. What's more, IBM says the public debut of this amazing "Racetrack" memory "could be closer than you think." Read More
LaCie launches triple interface designer hard disk
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April 8, 2008 LaCie’s partnership with designer Neil Poulton continues with the release of new triple interface hard disks which feature a sleek, compact design fashioned in a black-mirrored finish and including a blue LED strip to give an ambient underside glow. The disks, available in capacities of 500GB, 750GB and 1TB, include USB 2.0, eSATA and two Firewire 400 interface ports for connection to PC or Macs with simple plug and play setup supported for Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Mac OS X 10.3. Read More
HP releases customizable PC lineup
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April 4, 2008 A webcam with up to 12-megapixel still photo resolution, a 17-inch diagonal flat-panel monitor and a range of customizable desktop PCs which allow consumers to mix and match options are among the highlights from HP's new line-up. Read More
World’s first 2.5'' half-terabyte mobile hard drive and 22X DVD burner from Samsung
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March 8, 2008 March 8, 2008 Samsung has announced that it is shipping the world’s first half-terabyte (500GB) 2.5” mobile hard drive and the industry’s fastest DVD burner. Read More
Ultraportable ThinkPad X300 Notebook PC
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The ultra-portable Lenovo ThinkPad X300 measures less than three-quarters of an inch at its thinnest point and combines leading technologies such as solid-state drive storage, enhanced wireless connectivity and an integrated fingerprint reader. Recognized for its superior environmental attributes by the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), the versatile ThinkPad X300 can be configured for extreme portability starting at just 2.9 pounds, or maximum battery life of up to 10 hours or a balance between the two. It also offers an optional built-in 7-millimeter slim DVD burner and includes stereo speakers, a digital microphone and an integrated camera. Read More
